Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Money Can’t Buy Happiness…

…at least not always, anyway.Or intelligence or sanity.This observation after reading the newspapers
back home in California lately about the whole Donald Sterling affair.

For anyone who hasn’t been following the story, Sterling is
the owners of the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, who made disparaging
remarks a few weeks ago about black people in general and basketball legend
Magic Johnson in particular.

After those comments became public, the ensuing firestorm
resulted in him being banned from the NBA and most likely he will be forced to
sell the team.This week he went on CNN
to apologize.He did so by making more disparaging
remarks about black people in general and Magic Johnson in particular.This guy just doesn’t know when to shut up.

Obviously Sterling is insensitive, ignorant and out of his
mind.That much has been widely
discussed and agreed upon by just about everyone on the planet.Another side to the story that strikes me,
however, is that here is a guy worth nearly $2 billion, yet at the moment
anyway, he seems to be one of the most miserable SOB’s around.

Sterling’s wife has apparently abandoned him.Likewise his “friend,” the attractive woman he
used to take to the games that released the recording in the first place.His beloved team is in the process of being
stripped away.Even PR firms are
refusing to take him on as a client.It
makes me wonder who the guy has to hang out with at all anymore.I picture him sitting on a couch in some big
fancy mansion, completely alone and despised.

This all reminds me of another story of a miserable
eccentric millionaire from Los Angeles.Back in the 1980’s, Georges Marciano rose to fame and fortune with his
name brand clothing company, Guess.As
everybody knows, it was a huge success and he became very wealthy.

Also somewhat paranoid.He thought numerous former employees were stealing his money.Marciano went after them in court with great
zeal, spending millions of dollars and going through 17 different law firms.

The charges were baseless and the figures minor in the grand
scheme of things, but the issue consumed him, robbing his life of joy.At one point Marciano’s assets were valued at
$360 million.But then his employees
counter-sued, and won, leading to an original judgment against him of $425
million (later reduced to $260 mil).Long
story short, Marciano is now bankrupt.

There are plenty of other examples of very wealthy people
who are unhappy.I wonder sometimes
about Donald Trump.Is he happy?That blathering blowhard of birtherdom?Maybe so, but that doesn’t make him any less
an idiot, forever craving the spotlight.

In any case, it is good to remember sometimes for the rest
of us as we chase after our own material gain, hamsters forever running in the
wheel of consumerism, that money isn’t what life is all about.You can have billions of dollars and still be
miserable.

Or you can be flat broke yet have your friends and your
family and perhaps a sunny afternoon in spring to do with what you like.Those are the things, after all, that really
make life worth living.

1 comment:

What an astute and entertaining post, Kenneth. I haven't heard of any of those people except for Donald Trump - perhaps as his golfing pursuits are widely discussed in Scotland. I totally agree - the more people have materially the more they have to worry about. It's the wee things that make us happy :)

About Me

Kenneth Rosenberg is a California writer whose work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Surfer Magazine and other publications. Kenneth attended UCLA where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. When he is not writing, he spends his time surfing, snowboarding and traveling the world on a shoestring.